Final phase of downtown improvements begins Monday

Saturday

Dec 29, 2012 at 3:00 AM

A new year will bring new sights and sounds to Main Street Hendersonville as construction crews warm up their jackhammers to carve a way for new sidewalks and an artist sharpens her tools for a new fountain.

By Emily WeaverTimes-News Staff Writer

A new year will bring new sights and sounds to Main Street Hendersonville as construction crews warm up their jackhammers to carve a way for new sidewalks and an artist sharpens her tools for a new fountain. The final phase of a three-year downtown improvement plan is set to begin Monday. Over the next five months, crews will be busy between 5th and 7th avenues installing new sidewalks, curbs, curb ramps and gutters. They will be laying stormwater pipes, water lines and electrical lines, conduits and panels. New lights will be installed. Asphalt will be repaved and capped with a new overlay from 1st to 7th avenues. Some trees will be uprooted to make way for others in new brick planters, and the 83-year-old Skyland Hotel will get a face lift.Berry Bate, a professional artist from Arden, is poised to add a special accent to all of the work downtown by creating a new fountain for the corner of 6th Avenue and Main Street.A gateway sculpture is also envisioned for the corner of 7th Avenue and Main Street, but city council members agreed to pencil in some more time for development of that piece. City staff and council members met with the finalists for the two art projects earmarked for phase 3 improvements on Nov. 9. The artists talked about project concepts and garnered feedback from the city.Bruce White, an artist who works in steel and aluminum, traveled from Dekalb, Ill., to talk about his concept for a 24-feet-tall, lighted sculpture that seemed to dominate the gateway corner. After seeing his concept had not changed much after their meeting with him, the council decided to wait.Bate told the council on Dec. 6 that she had made three primary alterations to her original concept. "I propose to represent the mountain ranges surrounding Hendersonville. The mountain range will be in a U-shape, reflecting the unique topography of our area. We will have Bearwallow, Sugarloaf, Pinnacle and Pisgah represented as our four major ranges," she said. "The mountain range will still be hammered out of copper as the original model, but there are a few more changes after listening to you all. There will be stone integrated near the base of the mountain supported by iron roots. "The stone that will be used will be granite, which is from here, instead of blue stone that was in the model," she said. "The stone will be surrounding the mountains and piled on top of each other not separated from each other as in the first model. … It will be a much heavier feeling of stone giving the piece a strong base."Bate said that she heard several comments in her meeting with the city about the water needing a voice in the piece. Water "will pour down the valleys and the mountains, cascading down the stone, representing the many rivers here. The major river, the French Broad, will flow due north into a pool we will create," she said. The city will represent "due north," she said, the point where past and present look out onto the future, glinting in the pool's reflection.Main Street Director Lew Holloway said that a bronze plaque could accompany the piece to explain the concepts behind the fountain's creation.Bate said that an engineering meeting for phase 3 will be held Thursday."We've got a good two weeks where we have to get our paperwork finished before everybody can get started," she said. "Once everything's all finished engineering-wise, we can start hammering mountains."City council adopted a plan for downtown improvements in 2010. The first phase of construction began on the 100 and 200 blocks of Main Street in January 2011, followed by phase 2 on the 300 and 400 blocks in January 2012. The 500- and 600-block improvements are set to be completed in May.Reach Weaver at emily.weaver@blueridgenow.com or 828-694-7867.